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Meet Will Maizel

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Maizel.

Will, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’ve spent most of my life on the East coast of the US. Born in NYC, raised in Buffalo for the first half of my life and then my family moved to Tampa, Florida, where we’ve been now for the last 13 years. When I was younger, I spent my time building complex lego sets, ranging from small robots to giant recreations of Star Wars replicas, and playing tennis. I played competitively in Florida in the top 500 players under 18 category. Both filled me in such incredible ways and gave me a sense of design/ detail and of course a firm competitive side. Upon entering high school though, life pretty much entirely changed for me when I enrolled in a theatre stage-craft class. It was the first step to where I am now.

I fell in love with the theatre and the magic of building sets! It was also one of the first teachers I had who I thought understood who I was and saw my potential. Sadly he retired after that year, but the new teacher we received became one of my best friends in high school. He gave me the arena to step into my potential as a young artist, not to mention my first real part in a play! I played “Thing 2” in The Seuss’ Odyssey. This sparked my true passion for performance and my determination to keep doing it. Now upon leaving high school, I enrolled in Savannah College of Art and Design as an architecture major, hoping to dual major in production design as well.

The architecture was my way of thinking I couldn’t make any money really out of the theater and sadly, I made a decision to shy away from my passion. But after a year in the program, I realized I couldn’t fight the urge to be back in the theatre, so I switched over to a production design major with a minor in performance art. During this time, I built and designed several shows, as well as perform in 6 plays and over 50+ student films. The most influential point for me came when I was doing a traveling tour around Savannah’s inner-city schools, performing Julius Caesar. I had the most passionate directors who inspired me to take charge of what I wanted to do “inspire the younger me out there.” To me, this could only be done by performing for the rest of my life. I applied for graduate school in acting, something no one in my family has done before (acting, not the graduate school deal, both my parents have graduate degrees). I came out to California for CalArts’ program and it’s been the best decision I’ve ever made in life. During my time here, I truly discovered who I am and how I function within the world as an artist. Acting and performing is what fills me as deeply as love and friendship do and I’ll never look back!

Has it been a smooth road?
Honestly, choosing to follow your path as an artist in the world, I believe, is never a smooth road. Whether it be financial, societal, family-based, or mental and psychological obstacles, they all can prove to stand in the way of what your heart and gut are telling you. Personally, I have not had too many struggles with outside hurdles. Money hasn’t necessarily been an issue for my family, and my parents have been the utmost supporting people I know. They have stood by me every step of the way and continue to show love and respect for my work, even in times when it doesn’t make much sense to them. They are my rock and I wouldn’t be where I am without them. I have dealt with mental obstacles though, mainly the consistent thought of failure on the highest level which I imagine plagues a ton of students currently about to enter the real world. It’s tough to choose the life of an artist, and it’s even tougher to succeed as one. My back and forth between design and performance became quite jarring for me up until I finally made a choice to attend grad school. I felt very undecided and lost with everything I had chosen to do up until that point. Did I waste a ton of money on schooling I didn’t want? Was I even good enough to continue down that road enough to also make a living? How could I live with disappointing the people who cared about me more than anything. It kept me up a lot of nights until finally, I needed to take charge before the overwhelming cloud of dissolution took over. I was out to dinner with my parents one weekend during their visit before graduation and telling them I wanted to go to grad school was one of the scariest things I think I’ve ever done. It meant a ton of money from them and a chance that their son is choosing a career where he may not ever work—terrifying to me. But, after I told them, their support was undeniable and it filled me with love and courage to set forth on my new path.

Tell us more about the business.
I currently own and operate my own self-tape studio, run out of my apartment in the Valley. Room 210 Studios, based off the apartment number I live in, is a fully functioning, one-stop shop for all your self-tape needs as a performer in the LA area! A self-tape is essentially what it sounds like. For actors auditioning for a specific role, be it in film/TV or even theater, casting directors will ask for a self- recorded tape of you doing sides as a preliminary audition. Sides are snippets of a full script where the character you’ll be auditioning for has a big scene where we see who they are. Directors will see how you do with these sides to get an idea of how you interpret the character for their production. In the past, all auditions where scheduled and took place in a casting room, so everyone would be sent to the location with a specific audition time, then leave afterwards.

Travel was a huge part of this, and to get the people you wanted to audition for your project wasn’t always an option if they weren’t available to come in person. But now with the vast amount of technology in the world, people can audition all around the world for something! All they need to do is film, using their phone, some nice lighting, a solid color background, and possibly a tripod, a self-tape of the sides to be sent directly to the casting directors themselves. This is where Room 210 comes into play. Self-tapes are in their nature pretty easy to pull off on your own with not much help needed aside from someone to read with you, but if you think about how quick the auditioning process is, then it can get quite overwhelming very fast. You will get sides may be the night or two before the audition. You’ll need to find someone to read, get everything set up so that it looks good and you look good, and on top of all that, learn your lines, and create the best possible version of your character to be shown (the actual act the part of all of it). It’s a ton, and for those not versed in the process, it can get distracting to say the least. I created Room 210 to help out my classmates and other friends in the area, so they didn’t have to worry about anything except the acting part. The fun stuff. Let me take the pressure off! I have an entire set up needed for a beautiful and professional self-tape to be sent in. With 3 point lighting (key light, fill light, and hair light), two different colored backdrops for different moods of the piece, a tripod, and the brand new iPhone 11, your self-tape will be professional and sexy. Now there are a lot of self-tape studios in the area, but I’d say what sets me apart is my low prices, my MFA degree, and my no-pressure approach to filming scenes to create a relaxing environment all around. Not to mention, the idea of helping people and new friends achieve their dreams one step at a time fills me with the utmost compassion and excitement for the world around me. I love seeing my people reach new heights. It keeps me going in my artistic process!

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see this industry only progressing forward in the next decade. Remote auditions are more important now than they ever have been and I believe casting directors will look towards more self-tape studios to be their main source of videos coming in. If they have one they specifically like, then it guarantees the actors will be that much better off when it comes time to cast! That way, the only thing being looked at is the acting, rather than all the technical sides of it. On the downside, though for my business personally, it will become much easier for people to get the tools needed to make high-quality self-tapes on their own at a much lower price. I think taking the pressure off people will never go out of style, though, so I’m not too worried!

Pricing:

  • $40 per self tape for a minimum of an hour in the studio
  • $10 for coaching during your time
  • $20 for editing the tape together and compressing the file size down
  • $10 to print out sides using personal printer

Contact Info:

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